Oprah Winfrey was born on January 29, 1954 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States of America. Vernita Lee was Oprah's mother and Vernon Winfrey was her father.
In 1983, Oprah Winfrey hosted WLS-TV's low-rated half-hour morning talk show, AM Chicago, in Chicago, Illinois . Its first episode aired on January 2, 1984. This show was really successful when Oprah was the host, so it was renamed The Oprah Winfrey Show, expanded to a full hour, and broadcast nationally beginning September 8, 1986. Initially, the show was based on traditional talk show formats. In the mid-1990s the shows adopted a more serious format and addressed issues that Oprah thought were of direct importance and of crucial consequence to women. Oprah began to do a lot of charity work, and her show featured people suffering from poverty or the victims of unfortunate accidents.
The Oprah Winfrey Show is extremely successful and popular, in large part due to the fact that Oprah is able to relate to her audience.
Oprah Winfrey interviews celebrities or other life changing issues that involve the celebrity in some way, such as cancer, charity work, or substance abuse. Oprah focuses primarily on ordinary people that have done extraordinary things or been involved in important current issues. Oprah frequently features the plight of others around the world in her show, and uses the show to promote charitable causes.
Oprah's career trademark in recent years has been her "Wildest Dreams" tour, which fulfills the dreams of many deserving people, be it a new house, an encounter with a favourite performer, or a guest role on a popular TV show, who have been reported to her producers by loving friends and family. As well as the hour-long regular show, she tapes informal discussions or Question and Answer sessions with celebrity guests after the show, which are broadcast as Oprah After The Show on her Oxygen network. Perhaps Oprah's most famous recent show was the first episode of the nineteenth season of The Oprah Winfrey Show in the fall of 2004. During the show each member of the audience received a new Pontiac G6 Sedan ( all the 276 cars were donated by Pontiac as part of a publicity stunt).
Oprah Winfrey has a net worth of over $1.3 billion USD according to the 2005 Forbes Magazine Issue. She currently lives on "The Promised Land", her 42 acre (170,000 mē) ocean view estate in Montecito, California, outside of Santa Barbara. Winfrey was at a party the previous owners were hosting and so fell in love with the estate that she purchased it by writing a personal check for $50,000,000 USD, although it was not for sale. Winfrey also owns a house in Lavalette, New Jersey. Oprah Winfrey has never married but she has lived with her partner Stedman Graham for almost twenty years. On December 1, 2005, Oprah appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman.